Renewable Energy Provides 88 Percent of All New Generation for May, But Fossil Fuel Use, CO2 on the Rise

Strong growth of renewables continues apace

Several key findings from the recently released Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Projects Energy Infrastructure Updatereport and the Energy information’s Electric Power Monthly offer some insight in the changing landscape of energy development and production in the United States. First the good news:

The Energy Infrastructure Update from FERC show that wind, solar, biomass and hydropower provided 88.2 percent of all newly installed electrical generating capacity in the U.S. for the month of May 2014. Two new units of wind power provided 203 megawatts (MW) of capacity, five units of solar brought 156 MW, one unit of biomass 5 MW and one unit of hydro provided 0.2 MW.

To contrast, there were no new generating units of coal or oil and two new units of natural gas provided only 49 MW of new generating capacity in May. Put another way, renewable sources of energy provided more than seven times of new generating capacity than non-renewable sources.

For the 3,136 MW of new generating capacity installed in the first five months of 2014, renewable sources account for 54.1 percent. Broken down between energy sources is solar with 907 MW, wind at 678 MW, biomass with 73 MW, geothermal came in with 32 MW and hydro with 8MW. During that same period natural gas had 1,437 MW of new capacity, oil one MW and another one MW from what is termed as “other.” Coal and nuclear power provided no new generating capacity.

Renewable sources sources of power in total, including hydropower, now contribute 16.28 percent of all installed U.S. generating capacity operating in the United States, a level Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY campaign, notes that the EIA has been saying might not be reached until 2040 – nearly 26 years ahead of “schedule.”

“Some are questioning whether it’s possible to satisfy the U.S. EPA’s new CO2 reduction goals with renewable energy sources and improved energy efficiency,” said Bossong.”The latest FERC data and the explosion of new renewable energy generating capacity during the past several years unequivocally confirm that it can be done.”

Fossil fuels, CO2 on the rise

On the other hand, the latest EIA Electric Power Monthly report shows that while renewable energy consumption in the U.S. rose by 4.36 percent for the first quarter of 2014 as compared with the same period of 2013, fossil fuel consumption increased 5.17 percent in first quarter 2014 compared with first quarter 2013.

CO2 levels are 5.48 percent higher now than in 2013 (the monthly average atmospheric CO2 levels recorded at the Mauna Loa observatory stood at 401.85 parts per million for May) and 10.52 percent higher than in 2012.

Over the past 3 years total (non-hydro) Renewable Power (net generation) has increased from 6.0% (2012) up to about 7.0% this year (2014 Q1 basis projection). At this rate the U.S. should be expected to achieve its 30% reduced Power Generation carbon emissions in about 30 years.As far as recent carbon emissions, Coal Power (net generation) has increased by about 10% over the past year, and lower carbon Natural Gas and zero carbon Hydropower have both declined. Temporary market or weather induced changes? Perhaps, but Renewables still have a long ways to develop to put an end to these short-term increases in U.S. carbon emissions.

Amazing how bad US performs regarding renewable and especially solar, considering that compared to Germany: – US is at far lower latitude, hence sun higher at the sky, so much more solar energy/m³. – US has deserts with excellent climate for solar- US has ~4times more people, etc.- US has far more space per person.Germany has a sustained rate of ~2.5GW/a new solar, and ~2.5GW/a new wind. So even in past 5months Germany installed more solar and far more wind than the whole US.

Tom, once again we encounter the logical leap common to all renewables advocacy:Some are questioning whether it’s possible to satisfy the U.S. EPA’s new CO2 reduction goals with renewable energy sources and improved energy efficiency,” said Bossong.”The latest FERC data and the explosion of new renewable energy generating capacity during the past several years unequivocally confirm that it can be done.The leap, of course, is that increased renewables capacity always results in lower carbon emissions.I have yet to see any evidence on a state- or country-wide basis this is actually the case.

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Brian Donovan

July 1, 2014 05:45

What did you expect? All of the above, means status quo, and increasing amounts proportional to the amount they already generated.

“Renewable sources sources of power in total, including hydropower, now contribute 16.28 percent of all installed U.S. generating capacity operating in the United States, a level Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY campaign, notes that the EIA has been saying might not be reached until 2040 – nearly 26 years ahead of “schedule.””Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY campaign confuses capacity with generation. The EIA report is talking about generation, not capacity. 1 MW of solar or wind capacitywill produce only 0,1 to 0.3 units of average generation. Hence, the Executive Director is off by about an order of magnitude. In other words, he is totally wrong. Will he be replaced by someone who actually knows what he is talking about? Probably not. He most likely achieved his position becauseof his evident inability to understand the most basic concepts in energy generation. This makes it easier for him to convey misinformation like the above quote which is likely fed to him by unscrupulous ‘consultants’ with hidden agenda’s. His ignorance provides him with plausible deniability and allows him to sleep at night.In the field of sustainable development, it’s the lunatics who are in charge of the insane asylum. The rest of us will simply have to keeping smiling and pretending all’s well and good and as it should be. There is nothing new under the sun.Have a very happy day.

Quote:“I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire’s tax rate,” Buffett told an audience in Omaha, Nebraska this weekend. “For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.”LOL, This is one of the best comic relief i’ve had in years. Warren Buffet is at least, an honest man.